Nissin i40 Flash

[MrPhotoBob]

I am looking to purchase a flash for my Fuji XT-1 and XE-1, and I have been looking at both the Nissin i40 and the Fuji EF-42. I have heard both some good and bad things about the Nissin flash and I am wondering if anyone has had that flash for a long period of time and have some good things to say about it. I have had some experience with the Fuji EF-42 flash and have found that even though it does work with both my cameras, it does not have the best track record with battery life. I have also heard hat the Nissin i40 was a great little flash, but some people were having problems with the lettering on the back of the flash rubbing off. I have heard of people placing tape or even fingernail polish on the lettering just to keep it from rubbing off. Any thoughts on the Nissin i40 from someone who has had some experience with this flash for a long period of time, whether it was with a Fuji or any other camera, I am just trying to get some information on the track record for this flash.

 

[webfrasse]

This one was also just announced, http://www.metz.de/en/lighting/flas...litz-26-af-1-digital/product-information.html

I think I saw a price mentioned somewhere, $129

 

[Kasra A]

I don't really think if the wordings rubbing off would be a very determining factor! At least to me...
You should consider that i40 is smaller (almost 2/3 of the other one's size) and lighter (60g), which is important considering the fact that Fuji X cameras are relatively small. And Nissin is also a reliable brand. It's not like those generic Chinese knock offs. I also like the look of it, the physical knobs and dials match very well with X-T1 body!
Having said that, i40 is $100 more expensive! Whether the smaller form factor worth the price or not is your call.
I personally have a ef-20 which is smaller and tilts up and down, but doesn't swivel nor has manual\slave options, and it is just priced under $100. I do sometimes miss the manual options and rotating head, but it works just fine for me.

You compare them here:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/compa...I40/BHitems/796293-REG_796292-REG_1079740-REG

BTW, that Metz flash that someone mentioned also looks very nice!

Cheers,

Kasra

 

[MrPhotoBob]

I had heard that after a little time and use of that flash, some of the numbers on the back of the flash had worn off on some units. I contacted Nissin by e-mail on that and they e-mailed me back stating that they were aware of the fact that some units did have this problem and that they have fixed that situations on the newer i40 flashes that are being sold. I am just wondering if that is what others are seeing with their units before I shell out the money for that flash.

 

[David V]

I don't really think if the wordings rubbing off would be a very determining factor! At least to me...
You should consider that i40 is smaller (almost 2/3 of the other one's size) and lighter (60g), which is important considering the fact that Fuji X cameras are relatively small. And Nissin is also a reliable brand. It's not like those generic Chinese knock offs. I also like the look of it, the physical knobs and dials match very well with X-T1 body!
Having said that, i40 is $100 more expensive! Whether the smaller form factor worth the price or not is your call.
I personally have a ef-20 which is smaller and tilts up and down, but doesn't swivel nor has manual\slave options, and it is just priced under $100. I do sometimes miss the manual options and rotating head, but it works just fine for me.

You compare them here:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/compa...I40/BHitems/796293-REG_796292-REG_1079740-REG

BTW, that Metz flash that someone mentioned also looks very nice!

Cheers,

Kasra

Based on this comparison, I don't see the value in an extra $100 for the Nissin Flash. I have the EF-20 and the EF-42 and they are fine for what they are, especially for the price. I would like to see Fuji introduce a line of speedlights that have a similar feature set to Nikon's creative lighting system. That and a handful of lenses to fill in their gaps (some of which are already on the roadmap) would really make this system complete.

 

[MrPhotoBob]

I don't really think if the wordings rubbing off would be a very determining factor! At least to me...
You should consider that i40 is smaller (almost 2/3 of the other one's size) and lighter (60g), which is important considering the fact that Fuji X cameras are relatively small. And Nissin is also a reliable brand. It's not like those generic Chinese knock offs. I also like the look of it, the physical knobs and dials match very well with X-T1 body!
Having said that, i40 is $100 more expensive! Whether the smaller form factor worth the price or not is your call.
I personally have a ef-20 which is smaller and tilts up and down, but doesn't swivel nor has manual\slave options, and it is just priced under $100. I do sometimes miss the manual options and rotating head, but it works just fine for me.

You compare them here:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/compa...I40/BHitems/796293-REG_796292-REG_1079740-REG

BTW, that Metz flash that someone mentioned also looks very nice!

Cheers,

Kasra

Based on this comparison, I don't see the value in an extra $100 for the Nissin Flash. I have the EF-20 and the EF-42 and they are fine for what they are, especially for the price. I would like to see Fuji introduce a line of speedlights that have a similar feature set to Nikon's creative lighting system. That and a handful of lenses to fill in their gaps (some of which are already on the roadmap) would really make this system complete.

I have to agree with you on that....

 

[Gradybaby]

I've had the Nissin flash for a month now and the Exposure compensation wheel is staring to stick on me and some times won't spin unless I give it a hard turn.

 

[Jerry-astro]

I don't really think if the wordings rubbing off would be a very determining factor! At least to me...
You should consider that i40 is smaller (almost 2/3 of the other one's size) and lighter (60g), which is important considering the fact that Fuji X cameras are relatively small. And Nissin is also a reliable brand. It's not like those generic Chinese knock offs. I also like the look of it, the physical knobs and dials match very well with X-T1 body!
Having said that, i40 is $100 more expensive! Whether the smaller form factor worth the price or not is your call.
I personally have a ef-20 which is smaller and tilts up and down, but doesn't swivel nor has manual\slave options, and it is just priced under $100. I do sometimes miss the manual options and rotating head, but it works just fine for me.

You compare them here:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/compa...I40/BHitems/796293-REG_796292-REG_1079740-REG

BTW, that Metz flash that someone mentioned also looks very nice!

Cheers,

Kasra

If the recycle time spec is accurate in B&H's comparison, then that alone would be worth a fair amount more IMHO. I've had the Nissin since it was made available and have been very happy with it. The recycle time is very fast... more than enough for my needs. I'm glad they've addressed the issue with the paint wearing off, but that would be pretty low on my list of purchase criteria.

 

[ryan2007]

I've had the Nissin flash for a month now and the Exposure compensation wheel is staring to stick on me and some times won't spin unless I give it a hard turn.

Not good for a almost $300 flash. I feel better now canceling my pre-order and using the EF-42 with no issues.

Let's see what the new rumored Fuji flash will be.

Last, I would sell the flash. The issue will not resolve itself and at a point you may get stuck with a costly repair that is not economically worth it.

 

[ken224]

No direct experience with either flash, but I do know the following:

Nissin is upgradeable via USB. This might be important if Fujifilm updates their cameras to high speed flash sync in the future. Unfortunately, the FW update for Nissin can not be performed by the user. The flash has to be sent to the distributor and they will not update grey imports.

It is 2015 and most users could be expected to have mastered the art of FW updates. I am reluctant to buy products locked to the distributors' network: inconvenient (involves postage and delays) and forcing you to support expensive local "fat cows" (AKA distributors).

As for the lettering rubbing off: on a product of this price one would expect engraved and paint filled dials (like on the Fujifilm cameras or the EF-X20 flash). Am I expecting too much? Perhaps.

 

[MrPhotoBob]

No direct experience with either flash, but I do know the following:

Nissin is upgradeable via USB. This might be important if Fujifilm updates their cameras to high speed flash sync in the future. Unfortunately, the FW update for Nissin can not be performed by the user. The flash has to be sent to the distributor and they will not update grey imports.

It is 2015 and most users could be expected to have mastered the art of FW updates. I am reluctant to buy products locked to the distributors' network: inconvenient (involves postage and delays) and forcing you to support expensive local "fat cows" (AKA distributors).

As for the lettering rubbing off: on a product of this price one would expect engraved and paint filled dials (like on the Fujifilm cameras or the EF-X20 flash). Am I expecting too much? Perhaps.

The numbers are just painted on, if you rub your fingers across the flash, you can feel where the paint on the numbers is raised slightly. I have to agree, for that price, I would think that it would be a little nicer, but since Fuji does not have a lot to offer in the way of a flash, I guess Nissin feels that everyone really has no choice. I saw a flash that was posted on line with that problem and it looked bad where some of the numbers were just rubbed off to where you could not see anything on the right side of the back of the flash. Most of the numbers were gone.

 

[Peter Jonas]

I've had the Nissin flash for a month now and the Exposure compensation wheel is staring to stick on me and some times won't spin unless I give it a hard turn.

... I feel better now canceling my pre-order ...

That's what really matters.

Last, I would sell the flash. The issue will not resolve itself and at a point you may get stuck with a costly repair that is not economically worth it.

Wouldn't this kind of issue be fixed under warranty? If you had a problem like that I would think you would not persevere with using it the way it is until you run out of warranty.

 

[ryan2007]

I've had the Nissin flash for a month now and the Exposure compensation wheel is staring to stick on me and some times won't spin unless I give it a hard turn.

... I feel better now canceling my pre-order ...

That's what really matters.

Last, I would sell the flash. The issue will not resolve itself and at a point you may get stuck with a costly repair that is not economically worth it.

Wouldn't this kind of issue be fixed under warranty? If you had a problem like that I would think you would not persevere with using it the way it is until you run out of warranty.

Perhaps a warrantee thing. I would address the issue as soon as possible.

--
Cheers,
Peter Jonas

 

[AdHoc007]

I haven't had any problems with this flash thus far. The small form factor saves me space in my camera bag, the pop up wide angle diffuser is an easy way to attach flash gels, it recharges faster than my previous manual flash, and the TTL makes it easier for me to do slide and negative copying with the flash than when I was doing it manually.

 

[SimonWilder]

I've been using the i40 for Nikon on my D750/Df for a few months and have used it manually on my X-T1 and off-camera with triggers, it really is a very good flash unit, I also have the Nikon SB700 & SB910 which are great but the i40 is so much more compact and the manual controls on the i40 are so much more in tune with the X-T1 and Df.

I'm just waiting for a shop that sells the i40 for about £20/£30 less than most other shops to get the Fuji version back in stock and i'll be buying one.

IMO the i40 feels a little unbalanced when using it on the X-T1 with the 27mm but great with the 18-55 and 35mm, I'll looking to get the 23mm and 56mm while the cashback offer is still running and using the i40 with those for fill light.